STV has reported a rise of 8% in its underlying pre-tax profit to £7 million in the first half of 2012, but the broadcaster spent £4.9m on the litigation with ITV which was settled in March.

It said non-broadcasting revenues, from its digital and production activities, were up by 13%, driving a 15% rise in net earnings. The group has reduced debt by 3% to £55.9m, and says it is on track to reduce dependency on broadcasting from the current 89% to 67% of revenues by the end of 2015.

Rob Woodward, chief executive, commented: "I'm delighted we reached the settlement with ITV - we were involved in two live and one pending High Court actions so [the cost] is not a surprise to anybody, and that is all behind us."

The latest accounts show a £3.5m write-off of legal and other costs, a non-cash stock writedown of £4.1m, and an exceptional charge of £9.5m, all in relation to the ITV dispute, which saw STV viewers initially miss out on the first series of Downton Abbey.

Mr Woodward said that although digital revenues this year were one of only two performance indicators across the group "tracking below" forecast, he was happy with progress. "We set ourselves a hefty target and we are up 13%. It is a very respectable performance."

He said STV had delivered peak-time performance in excess of the ITV network, a key indicator, during the first half of the year. "Our schedule continues to feature the best of network content along with home-grown productions, in addition to our local news services. Our commitment to, and investment in, high quality public service content continues to secure a high level of audience engagement and positive brand profile with 25% of Scots viewing the evening news on STV, higher than the Channel 3 UK average of 18%."

The new current affairs programme, Scotland Tonight, was already Scotland's most popular current affairs programme, he said, adding: "Reaction has been really positive and it was won over many critics."

He also cited the recent Going For Gold Olympics preview, and the forthcoming STV Appeal and Coached Off The Couch shows.

The content production business has won a new commission from BBC2 for a 20-episode daytime show with a celebrity cooking format for later this year. It has already announced a collaboration with GroupM on a drama production of the The Poison Tree, and an international co-production Wallace.

STV remains cautious on the economic outlook and expects national advertising revenues to perform in line with the ITV network for the year. STV national airtime revenue was down 1% in July and it expects August to be down 6% with September down 2%. Mr Woodward said: "The regional airtime market remains challenging, reflecting the wider Scottish economy." Third quarter revenues could be down 12%, with the full year up 4%.

In April, the group launched its first STV Local metro sites for Glasgow and Edinburgh, with Dundee and Aberdeen likely to follow next year.

STV is a bidder for the local TV franchises, unveiled yesterday by Ofcom, in conjunction with Glasgow Caledonian and Edinburgh Napier universities.